The Jensen – a Black Country sports car that captivated the rich and famous

BETWEEN 1888 and 2011 thirteen mass production motor car manufacturers traded in the Black Country for an average of 18 years each, with the longest being 36 years and the least being just two.

- By DAVID COOPER Bugle correspondent

The first to open its factory was the Sunbeam Car Company, in Wolverhampton, and the last to open was Jensen Motors of West Bromwich.

Born of Danish descent in Birmingham - known in the Victorian era as "the Workshop of the World", the Jensen brothers, Alan born in 1906 and Richard in 1909, there was a strong chance the proven, rich industrial heritage of Brum would steer the duo along an automotive engineering route.

Richard became a pupil apprentice at Wolseley Motors, Birmingham, and Alan likewise became an apprentice with leading motorcar radiator manufacturer Serck, also in the city. Alan later joined Joseph Lucas in Birmingham, with its “King of the Road” strap line earned from the celebrated chrome plated headlamps, popular on the front of Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Jaguar and Armstrong Siddeley luxury cars.

The two brothers were influenced by the 1920s pioneers of the British motor car industry such as Herbert Austin, and William Morris and set about forging for themselves a reputation built from a highly regarded sports car to be manufactured in West Bromwich.

It was based on an Austin Chummy purchased for £65 as a gift for the sons by their father, that set in train the first Jensen 'special car'. It utilised the Austin chassis, replacing the body, to build a sleek two-seater with a fashionable pointed tail, built in the garage alongside the family home. It was quickly proving its paces at Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb near Worcester, leading to a second Jensen Special, this time taking the chassis from a Standard Nine, purchased from the Coventry factory for £168.